2026 CFP Format Debate, West Alabama's Scott Cochran Joins, & NCAA Tournament Preview

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Triple Option – Episode on 2026 CFP Format Debate, Scott Cochran, & NCAA Tournament Preview

Episode Information:

• Title: The Triple Option
• Hosts: Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, Rob Stone
• Guest: Scott Cochran, Head Coach at West Alabama
• Description: Exploring the evolving landscape of football, including playoff expansions, leadership insights, and personal stories within the sport.
• Release Date: March 19, 2025

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Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of The Triple Option, hosts Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, and Rob Stone delve into significant changes on the horizon for college football, particularly the proposed expansion of the College Football Playoff (CFP) system in 2026. The discussion is enriched by a heartfelt conversation with Scott Cochran, the newly appointed head coach at West Alabama, who shares his inspiring journey overcoming addiction and his vision for his new program.

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1. The Future of College Football Playoffs (00:00 – 25:35)

Expansion to 14 Teams: The hosts begin by discussing the anticipated expansion of the CFP from 12 to 14 teams in 2026. The proposed structure includes:

• SEC and Big Ten: Four automatic bids each
• Big 12 and ACC: Two automatic bids each
• Non-Power Four Conferences: One automatic bid each
• At-Large Bid: One highest-ranked team not meeting automatic bid criteria (e.g., Notre Dame)

Elimination of the Selection Committee: Urban Meyer advocates for an automated system to determine playoff participants, reducing human bias and error:

"Mark, there is no longer a selection committee. It is an automatic-oriented system which I'm all in favor of." ([02:02])

Mark Ingram supports this sentiment, drawing parallels to the NFL's straightforward playoff qualifications:

"I like the format for basically eliminating the selection committee and having a system in place that decides who plays in the playoff." ([06:06])

Remaining Human Elements: Rob Stone raises concerns about the inherent human decisions still present, such as seeding and scheduling:

"There would be a human conversation of, of who the seeds are... Is it going to take away the debate of who those 14 teams are? Yes." ([06:12])

Benefits of Expanded Playoffs:

• Increased Competition: Larger playoff brackets keep more teams engaged throughout the season.
• Higher Viewership: More high-stakes games attract greater fan interest.
• Balanced Scheduling: Encourages teams to play tougher non-conference opponents, enhancing preparedness.

Challenges and Concerns:

• Conference Disparities: SEC and Big Ten could dominate due to their additional bids, sidelining other strong conferences like ACC and Big 12.
• Scheduling Conflicts: Managing multiple championship weekend games without overlapping could be logistically challenging.

Urban Meyer emphasizes the positive impact on team motivation and fan engagement:

"Your best players are playing, the fan bases are engaged. Everybody's locked in." ([20:21])

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2. Conversation with Scott Cochran – Building West Alabama (27:21 – 55:50)

Introduction to Scott Cochran: Scott Cochran, a seasoned coach with eight national championships between LSU, Alabama, and Georgia, joins the show to discuss his new role as head coach at West Alabama. Cochran shares his personal battle with opioid addiction and his path to recovery, highlighting his dedication to fostering a positive and academically focused environment for his athletes.

Journey to West Alabama: Cochran describes how a serendipitous phone call led him to his current position:

"I was starting to get that itch back... And then I had a phone call from a board member. He needed me to be the head coach at West Alabama." ([33:18])

Building the Coaching Staff: He emphasizes the importance of hiring former players who understand his coaching philosophy:

"I've brought in probably about seven to eight players that I've coached. It was an easy decision because they wanted to help." ([35:39])

Overcoming Addiction: Cochran opens up about his decade-long struggle with addiction, culminating in an overdose in April 2020. His commitment to recovery is evident, as he discusses his nonprofit, the American Addiction Recovery Association, aimed at eliminating stigma and increasing access to life-saving resources like Narcan:

"We are trying to make September purple across the country so that we can eliminate this stigma." ([53:03])

Vision for West Alabama: Cochran's focus extends beyond athletics to academic excellence and long-term personal development:

"Success to me is not like this season, next season, it's 15 years from now... when a player can walk back on campus with their family and be a great husband, a great father." ([46:13])

Key Initiatives:

• Academic Support: Emphasizing a premium on academics with robust programs.
• Legacy Building: Encouraging players to create lasting legacies at West Alabama.
• Mental Health Advocacy: Promoting awareness and access to mental health resources through his nonprofit.

Impact and Support: Mark Ingram expresses deep admiration for Cochran's resilience and leadership:

"This is amazing... I'm so proud of you for being 14 months sober and for the impact that you're having." ([43:57])

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3. NCAA Tournament Preview – March Madness Final Four Picks (56:04 – End)

As the episode progresses, the hosts shift focus to the NCAA basketball tournament, offering their predictions for the Final Four.

Final Four Predictions:

• Mark Ingram's Picks:
  • Michigan State Spartans: "Sparty all day... We going Sparty out the South." ([57:59])
  • Alabama Crimson Tide: "We going Bama out the east." ([58:00])
  • Florida Gators: "Florida's playing at a high level. I'm going Florida out of the west." ([59:37])
  • Houston Cougars: "I'm going Houston." ([60:02])

Urban Meyer's Picks:

• Michigan State Spartans
• Alabama Crimson Tide
• Florida Gators: "Florida's gonna win it all." ([60:00])
• Tennessee Volunteers: "I have three SEC schools in there." ([60:19])

Rob Stone's Picks:

• Auburn (Moving On from the South):
  • "Mark, they hate it. They hate it." ([57:48])
• Duke Blue Devils:
  • "Clemson who has beaten Duke... Maryland can cause some problems." ([59:30])
• BYU Bears:
  • "I like six seed BYU to make some noise." ([58:05])
• Clemson Tigers and Maryland Terrapins:
  • "They have the potential to upset higher-seeded teams." ([59:06])

Discussion Highlights:

• SEC Dominance: Both Urban Meyer and Mark Ingram predict multiple SEC teams in the Final Four, reflecting the conference's strength.
• Conference Representation: Rob Stone anticipates representation from various conferences, including ACC and Big Ten, although he maintains a bias against certain teams like Auburn.
• Fan Engagement: The hosts express excitement over the potential matchups and the increased viewership from high-stakes games.

Notable Quotes:

"I have three SEC schools in there... It's like these teams can return to prominence." ([60:19])

"Final four is great, but I think the Gators are going to pick up their third national championship in school history." ([60:27])

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Conclusion

This episode of The Triple Option offers an insightful exploration of the future of college football playoffs, enriched by Scott Cochran's inspiring personal journey and leadership at West Alabama. Additionally, the hosts provide engaging NCAA tournament predictions, reflecting their deep knowledge and passion for sports. The conversation underscores the importance of leadership, resilience, and strategic planning both on and off the field.

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Notable Quotes:

1. Urban Meyer on Playoff Expansion:

   "There is no longer a selection committee. It is an automatic-oriented system which I'm all in favor of." ([02:02])

2. Mark Ingram on Eliminating Human Error:

   "There shouldn't be these human error in involving the playoff." ([05:33])

3. Rob Stone on Remaining Human Elements:

   "There would be a human conversation of, of who the seeds are." ([06:12])

4. Scott Cochran on Recovery and Advocacy:

   "We are trying to make September purple across the country so that we can eliminate this stigma." ([53:03])

5. Mark Ingram on Scott Cochran’s Impact:

   "I'm so proud of you for being 14 months sober and for the impact that you're having." ([43:57])

6. Urban Meyer on Championship Motivation:

   "Your best players are playing, the fan bases are engaged. Everybody's locked in." ([20:21])

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Key Takeaways:

• The proposed expansion of the CFP aims to increase competition and viewership by including more teams, particularly from dominant conferences like the SEC and Big Ten.
• Eliminating the selection committee could reduce bias but may not entirely remove human influence in playoff seeding.
• Scott Cochran's personal story emphasizes the importance of mental health support and building a strong, academically focused athletic program.
• The NCAA tournament predictions reflect the hosts' deep engagement and strategic thinking regarding team performances.

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For more detailed discussions and updates, listeners are encouraged to watch the episode on YouTube or listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or their preferred podcast platform. Follow The Triple Option on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook @3XOptionShow for bonus content.

Transcript

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, when that song goes, what's that say? Night? Does that say 90 light it right at the end?

[Rob Stone]

That's a good question, Mark.

[Urban Meyer]

You listen to it.

[Mark Ingram]

I don't light it.

[Rob Stone]

Light it.

[Urban Meyer]

Light it.

[Rob Stone]

Don't light it. Don't.

[Mark Ingram]

I don't. Don't light it.

[Rob Stone]

The triple option presented by Wendy's. Head to the Wendy's app to get a $1 JBC or a $1 double stack with offer and additional purchase. All right, thanks for joining us this week. Remember, rate, subscribe over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify wherever you get your podcast as well as across social media 3x option show. Mark Ingram, our musical representative, Coach Meyer, full of questions. I'm Rob Stone. Glad you're here with us on the triple option. This week we're going to talk some March Madness. The guys are going to give you their final four picks because it's what you do in March. We're also going to have a really fascinating conversation with the new head football coach at West Alabama, Scott Cochran, who was Mark's former strength coach at Alabama. He's going to talk about his new gig, building his program up, how he's going about doing it, also his road to recovery from opioid addiction. But we're going to begin with the future of college football and the playoff system. This is something we talked about, coach, a couple of weeks ago. There's these conversations out there already in 2026 about the expansion of the playoffs. We're all in favor of going from 12 to 14 teams. That conversation. Right now it seems like the working plan appears to be SEC, Big 10 get four automatic bursts. ACC, Big 12 each get two births. The non power four conferences get one automatic bid and then there'll be one bid left out there for the highest ranked team who did not meet any of those qualifications, I. E. A Notre Dame. All right, so that's fine. And Danny, we discussed, we debated it a couple weeks ago, but how do these automatic bids, the four from the sec, the four from the Big Ten coach, actually get worked out? And the concept, and this is a good one, is play in games.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I've been knee deep in this now. Not that I selected to, but I, I've been getting a lot of feedback from people, a lot of confidential feedback too. Phone calls from people that are involved in meetings. I'm not going to share names because that breaks confidentiality. And there's one that really, that was presented to me that I, I started reading it, I started listening and then I, I did some homework on It. And this one just makes so much sense to me. You know, there's going to be one big negative that I'm going to hit in a minute, Mark. I mean, a big negative. And the negative is that there's two conferences not getting treated the same as the other two conferences. But we'll hit that at the end. So this is the 4. 42211. Four teams from the SEC, four teams from the Big Ten, two from Big 12, two from the ACC, and then one independent one from the lower conferences. There's a lot of reasons why I love it. Number one is this now eliminates the selection committee. They are no longer a selection committee. It's not selection, it's access. And I think since I've been in the selection committee, think about the BCS used to be computers, and then it went to the playoff system, and the playoff system now had a committee. They make mistakes. They're human beings. They have. Don't have. How do you. How do you decide, you know, whether this team is better than the other? Someone say, well, you have to watch tape. And I'm thinking these. Most of those people don't know how to watch. What are they watching? You know, they watching the man. That was a great catch. Wait a minute. What are you watching? And so, Mark, you understand you've watched thousands of hours tape. So have I. But then again, there's also bias involved. Is there? Of course there is. You know, you're a Midwestern person. You say, well, it's an unbiased. Okay. There's part of your being that says, I'm going to give this because it comes down to this team or this team. What's the decision? You're seeing that a March Madness right now. So number one, and it's a firm number one. Mark, there is no longer a selection committee. It is an access. That means you win your conference or in your top four teams, which I'll get to in a minute. You're not selection anymore. The only thing, selection committee and the only thing the committee. It's not selection anymore. It should be a seating committee and that's it. And maybe they'll come up with a way of eliminating that. So that's number one. Number two. Big number two. Six teams in the Big Ten in the SEC are still swinging at the end of the season, which we'll get into that minute. And that means that if you see the numbers 40 to 50 teams on week, last week of the season, championship week, are still in the hunt, as opposed to 15 to 18 and then number three is you don't get penalized for non conference because you are going to see. You seen Penn State's got a horrific non conference schedule. I don't blame them. If I'm, if I'm the head coach at Ohio State in the current model, I'm not playing Texas. I'm not doing that because we lose that game. Mark, you know that's is it right. You're wrong. We all you as a player, me as a coach. Hell yeah. Let's go play Texas, find out where we're at. You train a little hard in the off season when you see Texas at number one in your first game of the schedule. So I'd like to rob if that's right. I'm going to go back to number one and get your guys opinions. Number one, it's no longer a selection committee. It's an access oriented system which I'm all in favor of.

[Mark Ingram]

It should be that way, Coach. You look at the NFL model, there is no playoff selection committee. You play the game, your record tells you where you are at. If you fall into the playoff picture and it should be that way with the College Football Playoff as well. There shouldn't be these human error in involving the playoff. It should be a particular format, a particular system where okay, these six teams, these seven teams make the College Football Playoff. And I'm all the format for basically eliminating the selection committee and having a system in place that decides who plays in the playoff.

[Rob Stone]

But the seating is still human. Right. So they still have to debate who's going to be the one seed, who's going to be the actual people who.

[Mark Ingram]

Are in the playoffs, who are in.

[Rob Stone]

Who are on the committee. So it's like the NBA.

[Mark Ingram]

There's no selection committee just like the mlb. There's no selection committee just like the.

[Rob Stone]

No, but there would be. There would be who's going to say the number one seed. Right. Does the Big Ten champion automatically become the one seed? No. There's still going to be that human conversation of, of who the seeds are.

[Mark Ingram]

Right.

[Rob Stone]

There's no other way you're going to do it. Right. But there's still going to have that human element in it. Is it going to take away the debate of who those 14 teams are? Yes. Is the debate going to be who's one through four? Then who's, who's following down that list? Of course there's always going to be that debate and I'm fine with that because frankly it provides us with a lot of conversation. Right. It provides Better games down the end of the year. The value to programs having these out of conference games like we've been talking about, this Texas Ohio State game that's going to start next season. Thank you, thank you, college football lords for giving us Texas Ohio State to start the season. But that is a really scary proposition for both of those programs the way things are right now, because they are absolutely scary. Somebody's going to get probably punished for that. Right. And somebody's going to earn some bonus points.

[Urban Meyer]

Let's hold that thought for. So I was a head coach for a long time in college and my schedule philosophy always was. And I shared it with our AD and our ad. You know, we were on the same page. You play one big dog, one medium dog and one small dog. You don't play three small dogs because you are not challenged. You're not. And then you get hit right in the square in the jug. Remember, Ohio State played a terrible non conference last year. What happened when they went to Oregon? The corners had no idea that speed. And you can say, I, I mean, coach, I know what I saw now later on the year, they were ready for Oregon speed. You know why? Because they saw that speed.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

So that. And I'm, I'm, I'm coaching Mark Ingram, which I would love to coach Mark Ingram. I want to turn a hand that ball against number one. I want to, I want to watch that cat go. I want to get him scarred up and ready for when it's time to go play in a conference. As opposed to coaching Zeke Elliott against a team that you're supposed to beat by 50 points. And then the second, middle of the second quarter, you pull them out. Yeah. And the fans don't. I mean, we talked about Penn State and I'm not taking shots at Penn State. But imagine your fan base, Mark. We thought you're going to pay that kind of money and Mark's in charge. I mean, I think Rob was in charge of the parking or something.

[Rob Stone]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

But you're going to pay a couple thousand bucks for tickets and you're going to watch. You're leaving at halftime.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, I'm the, the defender of the little man out there, apparently, because I, I love the little guy. That's when you, when you round yourself up to 510 on your driver's license. Right, Mark?

[Mark Ingram]

So don't associate me with that. I'm 5, 10, 100% on my driver's license. Now the combine, different story. They take.

[Rob Stone]

I understand, I understand the combine. All right. So coach, we're Talking three non conference games. Right. And, and originally you said big dog, medium dog, little dog.

[Urban Meyer]

Right.

[Rob Stone]

So now we're definitely going to have. Everybody should have at least a big dog. Okay, so that leaves two other.

[Urban Meyer]

I'd find a way of mandating that.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, I, I agree. I think that's great. Now how you mandate that. What does that penalize them? Okay, I don't know. That's fine. But what falls into that category? Does it have to be one of the big four conferences? Right. Like what My friends at the AAC out here are like, hey, wait a second, you know our friends at the Mac, you're bowling greens. They need those games versus Ohio State. Right. Because that's money that, that gets their entire athletic budget covered in one game. One nut. So I'm worried you'll still have those games and they still have those games, but there's less of those games. Right. There's less of those opportunities to take on the Michigan's, the Texas is, you know, the big dogs of the world for these little guys to, to boost their economy, if you will. That worries me. I understand it. But there still are those opportunities. You know, what does the ACC, what does the Big 12 do? Because they're still kind of, they're still kind of handcuffed, right. With these, these two automatic bids. And this doesn't help their cause if they have a breakout season and it's going to happen. You know, like that's my big concern. I know the ACC is better than we've seen. I know the Big 12 is on the rise. Like there are going to be years that those conferences deserve three and going to go ahead and say there's going to be years where they could deserve for it. Like you look at the ACC back in the day, you're right. And again, Louisville, Florida State.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

Clemson, Miami, you know, maybe North Carolina has an outlier.

[Mark Ingram]

How long has it been since one of those conferences deserved for how long has it been?

[Rob Stone]

We'll talk to our research department on that one. I agree. I'm not saying it was knocking on our door last year, but I'm just saying when it does appear, and it is going to appear, how does the playoff committee accommodate that? That's a, that's a big question for me. In defense of the living.

[Urban Meyer]

I think it's a great question. Now I'm going to, I'm going to. This, this number was presented to me as well. So during. This is just viewership.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

That means what's the country interested in? Mark, this is blows Your mind, it doesn't. Because you're an SEC guy. Of the viewership. In last year, The SEC had 440 million viewership. Yeah, we are. We are posters for the, for the eyeballs.

[Rob Stone]

That's a lot of eyeballs, Coach.

[Urban Meyer]

The Big Ten is right behind them. 20 million behind. But 420 million now you have the big Big 12 market. 169. That's almost 300 million last viewers. And then you have the ACC 158. And then, I mean, just from the national. I, as a coach, what you said, I understand it. I do remember the AC. There was a time Louisville was a top 10 program.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

There was a time that Miami, Florida State, Clemson, you had four big, big dogs in that conference. And In North Carolina, North Carolina State would show up. I mean, even a week, four. So I get that. But we're talking 20, 25, and that's not the case right now.

[Rob Stone]

And we want more eyeballs on college football, and SEC and Big Ten are clearly doing that. So where are the opportunities, though, for the ACC in the Big 12 and. And the Mountain west and the AAC 10 to garner those eyeballs? So what they need to do, Coaches, I think kind of what. What the Big Two are talking about is they need to go out of conference and schedule. So they need the help of the Big Ten in the sec. You know, the. Miami's, the. The Florida states.

[Urban Meyer]

I want to go. I want to go somewhere with that.

[Rob Stone]

That's fine. They've. They've got to be able to get a Big Ten, a real Big Ten program.

[Urban Meyer]

Okay.

[Rob Stone]

A real SEC program on their schedule as well to help them, to help that conference.

[Urban Meyer]

Okay, let. Let's throw this on the table. That, remember, I want to say it was $4 million and then 6 million. That was the amount of money the teams earned as they moved up the ranks. We saw Arizona State and we saw. Who else? Boise have a. I think a buy. Right.

[Rob Stone]

So they.

[Urban Meyer]

They automatically got that money, then they automatically got the next money. That's what I think is driving some of this, where you have Big Ten and sec. And I'm not saying this is happening, but if there's a lot of pushback on this, what keeps those two conferences from saying, let's go play a Big Ten versus sec? Tell me what that viewership would look like.

[Rob Stone]

It would be great. But is that what's good for college football?

[Mark Ingram]

No, it's not what's good for college football.

[Urban Meyer]

Ohio State was in debt last year after winning a national championship.

[Rob Stone]

Think about that so think about 36.

[Urban Meyer]

Sports they have to support and you know, and I know these other sport. I mean. Yeah. And that's, that's the problem with when you say let's make this like the NFL where everybody's treated the same. There's 0.000 chance that ever happening in college football. Because college football is the, is the financial resources for these universities. And you know who they, who they look out for, Mark. Right. SEC looks out for SEC.

[Mark Ingram]

For sure.

[Urban Meyer]

So is what it is. Right. I get you. I see your Colgate face looking at us.

[Rob Stone]

Right.

[Mark Ingram]

But also you talk about, you talk about recru too. Like.

[Rob Stone]

Yes.

[Mark Ingram]

How you gonna get a recruiter? How you gonna be a prospect? And I'm getting four bids. I'm getting that type of viewership out of the SEC and Big Ten. Why am I gonna go to, you know, the ACC or the Big 12 unless they're paying me a substantially amount more money? You know what I mean? So now you talk about recruiting, how that impacts recruiting as well.

[Rob Stone]

Well, I think some of those quote unquote smaller conferences almost become like the minor league baseball system. Right? It's, you're, you're in single A right now, but you all want to get to the big leagues.

[Scott Cochran]

Right?

[Rob Stone]

And the big leagues is the Big Ten in the sec. And you're going to take those steps. You're going to use, you're going to use the Mac as a stepping stone and frankly they kind of are that way right now. But the ACC in the Big 12 should be treated as the major leagues. All right. I know they may not have all the bids going forward, but they 100% should be treated like the major leagues. Just like SEC in the Big Ten.

[Urban Meyer]

No.

[Mark Ingram]

They are though. They're getting two automatic bids, Stone.

[Rob Stone]

Two, two 50 of what they get. I, I, I understand and I understand the Big Ten have been.

[Mark Ingram]

The ACC had four teams that was going to be in the playoff 2000 format.

[Rob Stone]

All right, Somebody just fed me some information. We go back to 2005. Okay.

[Mark Ingram]

Wow. 20 years.

[Rob Stone]

This is not great.

[Mark Ingram]

20 years, Stone.

[Rob Stone]

Two decades. We're going back, but it happened. ACC rankings for. We forget, and this makes me sad, we forget how good Virginia Tech used to be. Right?

[Urban Meyer]

Yes.

[Rob Stone]

The hokies at number four. Florida State at number eight. 11. Louisville 13. Miami 16. Georgia Tech 17. Boston College 20. Clemson 25. Virginia. Again, you're right. That's 20 years ago. That's, that's going back. But it does show you that the pedigree was there. And I think they can return to.

[Mark Ingram]

Prominence because we saw the PAC12 being a dying conference and in their last year of existence they would have had three teams in the top 12. Is that what it says? Yeah, they would have had three teams. So they would have three teams in the playoffs. So it's like these teams can return to prominence. It just takes one year of return.

[Rob Stone]

That I guess that's my big pushback coaches is I want a little more flexibility. But I understand, I get it. Big 10 in the SEC and these other conferences, they don't want to give it up. They want to take care of of their own.

[Urban Meyer]

Light it.

[Rob Stone]

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[Mark Ingram]

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[Urban Meyer]

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[Mark Ingram]

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[Rob Stone]

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[Mark Ingram]

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[Urban Meyer]

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[Rob Stone]

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[Unknown]

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[Unknown]

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[Mark Ingram]

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[Rob Stone]

All right, I want to get back to the big talking point here. And with this potential expansion in 2026, we're talking about play in games, right? So we're taking it out of the hands of the committee and we're saying the conference is literally, coach and mark are going to be delivering the teams to you. So for example, right, if right now, this is what they're talking about again, the SEC in the Big Ten sending four programs on championship weekend, we're still going to have your Big Ten, your SEC championship game. Again, this is what they're discussing. So you got one versus two in the conference. Those two are automatic bids. Okay, so two of your four bids already locked in. Those two teams in the championship game, they go win or lose. Same weekend you have 3 versus 6 in the, in the conference and 4 versus 5. I love higher seed being the home team. So instead of one game of value, of real, real value in the conference on that championship weekend, you have three games and you have sixteens that are fighting to get in the playoffs, even though I guess two of those are already guaranteed. So coach, you look, you look at this, this three game play in type format at the end of the season, what jumps out at you?

[Urban Meyer]

Okay, history lesson. Ohio State lost to Florida in the BCS championship in O6. As you wound up the season, there was probably four teams still on the hunt near the end. Okay, let's Fast forward to 2014, the first College Football Playoff year when you had four teams that maybe gave you 12. Okay. The analytics says last year was close to 50. Teams would have still been swinging at the end of the season. What's that mean? Your best players are playing, the fan bases are engaged. Everybody's locked in. So I will take it, I can't wait to hear Mark's take on this from sec. But most recently I was Big Ten, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Nebraska, Iowa. Forgetting someone. Those are all very, very good teams. They're not the great teams. They just don't have the. They're not Ohio State, Penn State or the Wolverines. They're not. You know, that doesn't mean they can't beat them. I get that. But the way the current model is, what chance to this constant ever make in the playoff? What chance is Michigan State? What chances Nebraska? What chance is Minnesota? What chance does slim? I mean, sure, you know, lightning in a bottle. Probably not just because of history with this one now you, you're a sick. You have USC and Washington, Oregon and UCLA in there now too. You're the sixth place team. You are coaching that team as hard as you can. Mark, you're a player, you're playing as hard as you can. You know why? You still have a swing.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Week 11.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

And that's I think of all the fact that first of all human error is being eliminated now with the selection committee, number two, those players, most importantly the players, those coaches and those fan bases are swinging as hard as they can in late November, which I think is the absolute game changer. Done sign me up.

[Mark Ingram]

100%, coach. Done sign me up. You have enormous amount of teams that still have fight and still have hope towards the end of the season. Just think if in this format, what we would have had in the SEC last year. You would had Alabama playing South Carolina. You would have had Ole Miss playing. No, you would have Tennessee playing South Carolina. You would have Alabama playing Ole Miss. And so that is great for college football. You would. I don't know what the numbers, I don't know what the game would have been in the Big Ten, but you would have had three games of huge value and of huge importance going to the College Football Playoff. Then you, you do the same thing for the acc. You do the same thing. Well, the acc, they just have what, two automatic bids right?

[Rob Stone]

Right from the as of now. And again, this is what's being discussed for 20, 26.

[Mark Ingram]

Right.

[Rob Stone]

It's not a lock.

[Mark Ingram]

I love that for the Big Ten. I love that for the sec. Being an SEC guy, I would have loved to see those games to see who gets the automatic bid for the play in. So I think this is huge. I think this is great for college football. I think this is great for the conferences and it just gives more teams hope. Your players are playing like you said coach, your coaches are locked in the sixth place, seventh place, Coach. They're locked in the last three, four weeks of the year because they got a chance to get. They got.

[Urban Meyer]

So it's me and you and against Stone. Stone.

[Rob Stone]

No, no stones.

[Mark Ingram]

With stones.

[Urban Meyer]

I'm a high, low, stone. I say we high, low and stone. What do you think?

[Mark Ingram]

Stones with you, for the most part, man, we knock them out. This is crazy.

[Rob Stone]

Listen, here's that.

[Mark Ingram]

400 million viewers. Coach is going to 500 million with those games.

[Rob Stone]

Y. Eyeballs are good.

[Urban Meyer]

Eyeballs are good news, I hope.

[Rob Stone]

Championship game one versus two. My only concern right there, and I've taken it down. I was at DEFCON 2. I'm at DEFCON 1. My concern level for that is because both teams are already in. What do you really have to play for? You have to play for seating, right? So seating still matters for the conference championship game. You've got a chance to be the number one seed. You bet you're laying it all out on the line for the conference championship game. You're not holding back some of those horses going forward. Here's the thing that worries me, and I'm only looking at this from a programmer's view, right? We're talking three massively important games from the Big Ten, right? One versus two, three versus six, four versus five. You're talking three massively important games from the SEC as well. There's only so many hours in the day that you can schedule these games where they're not conflicting with each other. So does it become, you know, championship Friday in the Big Ten and championship Saturday in the sec, so you can just kind of stockpile game after game after game? Do you. Do you have a certain flow to it? Because I don't know how you're going to get all six of those games being played one day where they're not cannibalizing.

[Urban Meyer]

Are we done with the negativity, Rob? I mean, no, I'm just. Have you not got two words?

[Mark Ingram]

3, 4, 5 TVs?

[Rob Stone]

I don't want to be flicking around.

[Mark Ingram]

I want. I want all my eyeballs play in Friday, championship Saturday.

[Rob Stone]

There you go. Maybe that's.

[Mark Ingram]

Maybe playing Friday. I like that, Commissioner, you don't get the championship designation.

[Rob Stone]

See, I'm behind the scenes. Who just brings up, hey, what about this? What about that? You guys can solve the problems. I'm all in favor. I'm the party planner on this team, Right?

[Mark Ingram]

Friday, Stone, championship Saturday.

[Rob Stone]

Okay, then, problem solved.

[Urban Meyer]

I think that's a good D. Done.

[Rob Stone]

D.

[Mark Ingram]

Have done.

[Rob Stone]

We're going to have this conversation a couple more times. I can't wait till we bring the ACC and the Big 12 on to talk about their viewpoint on this. Theirs will be different. But hey if you but 2005 stoner two decades glasses and Big 10 glasses on, you are loving what you are seeing and I get it and I totally 100% am on board with it. Moving towards a new playoff format. That is the fresh move of the week brought to you by Wendy's head to the Wendy's app to get a dollar Wendy's or $1 double stack with offer and additional purchase coming up next on the triple option. The remarkable story of West Alabama head coach Scott Cochran, an eight time national champion, an overdose survivor and the new head coach of the Tigers. Enjoy all your favorite sports like Never before at BetMGM, add a parlay wager, minimum odds of plus 400 to your bet slip bet up to the specified max stake and activate your token. If you win and your bet with the token applied, you'll score extra winnings on your wager. And with BETMGM at your fingertips, every play and every game matter more than ever. Place your Moneyline prop and parlay bets at the Sportsbook Born in Vegas today. See betmgm.com for terms 21/only US promotional offers not available in Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario gambling problem call 1-800- gambler call 877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York call 1-800-next step in Arizona 1-800 through 275050 in Massachusetts, 1-800-bets off in Iowa subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.

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[Urban Meyer]

EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin.

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[Rob Stone]

Welcome back to the triple option presented by Wendy's cool guest this week for us. And I'll admit Mark Ingram was the booker on this one, right? And for good reason. Scott Cochran. Welcome to the triple option head coach at West Alabama. You and Mark go way back to the strength and conditioning days. We're going to talk about your battle with addiction as well. You have such a compelling story that will impact so many people out there. But, but let's start with football. Let's start with your. With your former weight room guy, Mark Ingram. Man, how was Mark in the weight room for you back in the day?

[Scott Cochran]

Oh, man. Soft. He didn't do it? No, no. He was a grinder. You know, back then there wasn't a lot of like computers and stuff in the weight room, but we videoed everything and he was in the workout group behind a couple of other guys. And he would always want to know, hey, what did. What did coffee power clean.

[Rob Stone]

Wow.

[Scott Cochran]

What did Trent power clean like? He wanted to know what those guys did so that he could go beat their number. Right. Because he was a later workout. And so he had the option to actually push the envelope. So it was really cool to see him grind.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, I'm going to jump in. I'm going to jump in before because I think Mark's going to drive this. But coach, congratulations. And I know you very little, but I know of you obviously competed against you. I think this is real interesting that coach Saban and myself, I'd like to think that, I think Coach France. But early on in my career, you know, I. I was the strength coach. I was the sports performance guy. Never, I mean, even way before all that stuff took place. And then I met Mickey Moratti, who became. He was actually the number two. People don't realize this, that if I was not at work for some reason, recruiting coach Moratti ran the program. He was the assistant head coach. He ran everything. And I. The trust that I put into him and I talked to Coach Saban, he had the same feelings for you. You were number two. And when did that transformation transform that, the strength coaches? Because, I mean, there was a day you paid them 50 grand and they were someone else. Now they're being respected the way they should. When did that transition take place from being a strength coach to basically running a program? When the head coach was in there.

[Scott Cochran]

I think I would say for it, it was all relationship, right? Coach Saban needed to kind of groom me, coach me to become that. And I think it took probably. Probably by my third year at Alabama, which would have been 2010, I really got to. He kind of gave me the keys in the summer when he would step, you know, when he would go recruiting or he would have vacation time. So I would. It took about three years for him to trust that on me.

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, Coach, man, you were everything to me, man. Like you say, it took you three years, but she was doing that like in 08 when I got there as a true freshman, man, like, you was running the group. She was putting us through warm up. She was breaking us down, man. And you had an integral part in my development as a player and as a man, you know, Alabama, man. So I just want to say I love you. I appreciate you. Eight national championships. You got 50 over. Over 50 first round draft picks, over 200 guys drafted in the NFL. Just an amazing human being, amazing coach and amazing person. And I love you to death, man. So through your whole journey, man, just tell me, how did you get this job at. To be the coach at West Alabama, man? Like, this came out of nowhere, man. And I love it, bro. Like, tell us the story, man. How'd this come telling you?

[Scott Cochran]

I'm telling you, it came out of nowhere. I was literally so it was December, and I was starting to get that itch back, you know, like, man, I need to be back coaching. I really need to be a back around players and influence and helping players. And, you know, the phone started ringing. A couple of SEC schools called about a strength job. A couple of NFL guys called, and then I had some Special teams opportunities.

[Rob Stone]

And.

[Scott Cochran]

And I. It just didn't feel right, you know? And then January, I get a phone call from a guy who's a board. I didn't know this at the time, but he was a board of trustees here, and I thought he was calling about nonprofit stuff about me coming to speak to his organization. And he goes, no, I need you to be the head coach at West Alabama. I started laughing. I'm like, wait, you sure you on the phone with the right guy? Like, are you sure?

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah.

[Scott Cochran]

And I was like. And then second, where is that located at? You know what I'm saying?

[Mark Ingram]

Where is it?

[Scott Cochran]

It's in Livingston, Alabama. It's an hour from Tuscaloosa.

[Mark Ingram]

Okay, so you close?

[Scott Cochran]

Yeah. So we're. We're between, like, Meridian, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa. We're right there between those two. And, man, when I got the call, it was. You know, obviously, it's the vision, too. So it wasn't near the money that I was getting kind of thrown at me by these other schools, but it just felt right. I mean, it just like. It's almost like God said, here, this is your spot. This is where I want you to help young men thrive. And, man, every day, I'm telling you, every single day, something happens. I mean, just getting to talk to you today, like, I mean, how. What a blessing, you know, one of my favorite guys to ever coach, you know, And I get to, you know, talk to you today. So, like, it's like every single day, God shows me something special about the place and the. Where I'm at to, like, prove, like, hey, this is where you're supposed to be.

[Mark Ingram]

But I love it. And one thing I love the most is your coaching staff, bro. You are going back to players who you coached, who you know, know what they built.

[Urban Meyer]

Who's on it?

[Mark Ingram]

Mark, he got O.J. howard. He got Blake Sims. He has Damien Square. You. He has Bo Scarborough. You talk about alpha dogs, coach. Alpha dogs who is going to push players to the limit, know what it takes. He has them on his coaching staff, and I love it, man. So tell me about what went into hiring your staff and why you chose to go get some of your former players.

[Scott Cochran]

Well, okay, so there's one coming out that I'm not supposed to talk about yet. So we're gonna talk.

[Mark Ingram]

Go ahead, break it on. Go ahead.

[Scott Cochran]

Let's break it. Reggie Ragland. So Reggie Ragland has. He has done all the paperwork and all the stuff, so we're gonna blast this probably next week or later. On in the week. But Reggie Ragland is coming in. We. I haven't figured out the best title for him yet. He wants to be assistant linebackers, so of course that he can do that. But I was thinking director of player support, player engagement. OJ Howard's my player. Director of player development. Blake Sims is wide receivers, Ronnie Clark is running backs, Thomas Fletcher is special teams coordinator, and, you know, Damian Squares D line. So I'm. I've brought in probably about seven to eight players that I've coached. And honestly, it was an. It's an easy decision. You know, my phone's ringing with former players saying, hey, how can I help? And I'm not going to say no, because to me, when you can give back to this game that has given you so much, like the, the amount of gratitude and the amount of appreciation that these young men are now going to have for giving back to the game and giving back to these young men that are starving. I mean, these players are starving to be great. Like, they don't know how, but they're begging, like, what. What more can I do, Coach? What more can I do? You know? And it's just been incredible, you know, I love it.

[Mark Ingram]

This is amazing. This is amazing. I'm so happy for you, Coach.

[Rob Stone]

Coach Cochran, you have lived a life, right? Eight national titles between your time at. At LSU and Bama and Georgia. You also are a recovering addict. Yes. And you had an overdose in, in 2010. And I know that is a. A major part of your story. And, and give us just a quick update on. On how you become an addict, how you overcame it, and what you do now to support those out in the world who. Who need that type of assistance.

[Scott Cochran]

Yeah. So, you know, I started getting migraines really bad, like 2009, 2010. And, you know, I went to the docs, and the docs were like, hey, you know, why don't you stop yelling?

[Mark Ingram]

That's what he known for.

[Scott Cochran]

Yeah. I was like, how about this, Doc? Why don't you stop breathing? How about that? That's what you're asking me to do. And so he put me on, you know, a few different medications and nothing really worked. And then he wrote me a script for Oxy. And, you know, he told me, right? He said, you know, this is addictive. You got to be careful, man. Listen, I'm the head strength coach at Alabama. I'm winning national championships. I'm on the Jumbotron. I'm on 60 Minutes. I'm on ESPN. Like, I'm not gonna get Addicted to these things, you know, like, that's just not happening. But sure enough, by 2015, it got completely out of control, and it was running my life. You know, I was. I was snorting pills. I wasn't even taking them anymore. I was snorting them, and it was a daily grind every single day. I mean, it was for. For 10 full years. It was every day. And so in 2020, you know, I thought, hey, if I go to Georgia, I won't. I won't need drugs anymore. You know, I won't be yelling as much. Maybe I can just quit. And it got worse. You know, it got worse when I got to Georgia. And in 2010, I. I'm sorry. In 2020, I overdosed. April 10, 2020, I overdosed. My wife found me dead. It was during COVID and she found me on the ground called the 91 1. They, you know, got me to. And so I. I started my journey of recovery. And so, you know, I've had multiple setbacks since my first rehab, so I've gone to three different rehabs. Uh, I'm. I'm. I'm almost 14 months right now. Come on, baby.

[Urban Meyer]

Let's go. Let's go, coach. Let's go.

[Mark Ingram]

Let's go, coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scott Cochran]

So I'm 14 months now, and, you know, there was a point where I had to step away from the game to get my life together. So the end of the season at Georgia, we played Florida State, and I told Kirby. I was like, hey, I've had a setback. I need to get my life together. I'm going to step away for a little while, and I need to just break ties. Not like last time, where I went to rehab for 100 days and then came back on staff. I was like, you know, I need to step away. And that's when I started a nonprofit. It's. It's the American Addiction Recovery Association. You can find us at eliminate the whisper.org and just see the cool stuff that we're doing. You know, the biggest thing that. That I think is we're trying to eliminate stigma, because this disease is surrounded by stigma. You know, when I went to rehab the second time and people knew about it and it was public, nobody brought my wife a casserole, right? Like, not that they shunned her, but it was like, oh, you got that problem. I don't want anything to do with y'all, and that sucks. But that's what this disease does to people. It makes people like, oh, I don't want to be associated with that, you know. So we started this non profit and man, it's saving my life every day. And I know I've saved multiple, I mean, hundreds of people's lives just by speaking out against this disease.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, Coach Cochran, my daughter, this is years ago. One day she had ankle surgery and I get home and I started hearing it because oxy and. What's the other one? Vicodin.

[Scott Cochran]

Vicodin, yes.

[Urban Meyer]

You just didn't hear much about it. And then it became like an everyday, you know. And, and so I remember I came home and I asked Shelly, I said, you know what? And they gave her a bottle of 40 pills. And I grabbed those pills, I was like, wait a minute. And I went into. I don't want to get. Because I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. But I went into, I'll be. I went into Ohio State and I went to our training staff and I said, so when our guys have surgery, what happens? And they get these. And, and it's, you know, it says on it, Rob, back then it said two refills. So you're getting this massive. I'm saying 40 more than you need. It might have been 30, it should be one. And so I'm not a doctor, but I jumped right in the middle of that and I said, we are not doing that. We're not. If they want to keep coming to you, give them a couple of time. And I remember someone saying, you can't do that because of, I don't know, privacy or HIPAA or whatever. That's. I said, no, no, fire me then we're doing it. We are not having these massive bottles with refills. I think. Don't they sell for like 20 bucks on the street or something?

[Mark Ingram]

Oh yeah, the black market is crazy.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah. And so I stopped it at Ohio State. We said we're not. And I know it's stopped now. I think it is. You can't get re. You know, imagine that a bottle with 40 and two refills on it.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

And you got, you should maybe take two. Right. And then you're done. I don't think you take any. But so, so I, I just wondered has that chance. You're in the non profit now. I'm hoping that I'm out of the game now. Has that changed? You don't. They don't do that anymore. Right.

[Scott Cochran]

I can only tell you what we did at LSU and Bama and Georgia and they never, the players never got a bottle filled that the trainers or however it was done, they filled it and they kept it, and, and they'd give them an envelope at night with two pills in it, like, hey, if you need this for sleep, this is it. But after about three days, it was gone. They never got another one, so they never got to the addictive side, you know, and it's amazing what I, what I've found and seen with my own eyes. Sometimes the, the numbers don't add up, but I've, you know, the players, it seems like players don't really like pills. You know, there's a big fear there whether they have family members or not. But I, I, I've seen that at all four places I've been that players just don't like when they say, hey, here's some pills for the pain that first things like, whoa, I don't, I'm not doing that. So it's, it's, it's very interesting.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, well, Coach, man, it's just a humbling story for me, like, from a guy who looked up to you, who, who looks up to you, a guy who grew so much from you. You were like Superman to me. I felt like you could do no wrong. Like, so for you to, you know, have that problem, it just shows me how, you know, vulnerable, how delicate, you know, a human could be. And I just treasure, I treasure your story. I treasure you. I love you to death, and I'm just so proud of you for being 14 months sober and for the impact that you're having being the president of your nonprofit and everything you got going on. Man, I love you to death. And I just want to know, man, being through so much, what do you plan to build for the student athletes at West Alabama?

[Scott Cochran]

Man, I'll tell you this, it is so awesome here because the players are starving, right? They want, they want to be great. But, you know, they asked me early on in this process, what does success look like to you? And success to me is not a, like this season, next season, it's 15 years from now, 10 years from now, when a player can walk back on campus with their family and be a great husband, a great father, and have a legacy here at uwa because if you go, if you go on Alabama's camps campus because of the championships, and obviously Mark's an outlier because he's a Heisman Trophy winner. But just say some one of his teammates, if they walk back on Alabama's campus, their name is in the bricks, in Denny chime saying that they were a member of a national championship team. That means the world to former players and for them to say, hey, look what your dad did. Like, look what your dad has done. Because it's rare that, you know, we're beaten on our chest in front of our kids. You know, they never really learn anything about their own, you know, parents until you say, hey, this is who I am.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Scott Cochran]

So that to me is the key to all of this. So. So I'm. I'm putting a premium on academics.

[Urban Meyer]

Yes.

[Scott Cochran]

And that's just not, that's not just coach talk, like a premium on academics. We got a really good academic program here. You know, it's really cool because, like, it's such a small school that, like, if you're in the engineering program, for every nine students. Nine. Every nine students there's one professor like, come on.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Scott Cochran]

You can't. If you can't pass in that situation, then, hey, just jump over to the business school and if that doesn't work, jump onto general studies or go to education. Like, there's so many possibilities here. And I didn't even know where this place was located before I got the.

[Rob Stone]

Call, you know, put it on the map, Coach. Put it on the map now. Yeah, we root for your. Your energy is infectious. I. I understand how you used to be, you know, in charge of the weight room with these guys. Right. And strength and conditioning. It seems obvious to an outsider like me.

[Mark Ingram]

I gotta show you clips of them, man, I can't wait.

[Rob Stone]

I can't wait. I bet I'm going to be able to hear it. I bet I hear it coming down.

[Mark Ingram]

The hallway when the doctor says, tell him to stop screaming. It was like a legit, like, please stop.

[Rob Stone]

It was a legit request, like, coach Conquer. I just want to go back to the addiction side of it real quickly and I don't want to harbor on this. And we talked about how the education of opioid addictions has really changed and obviously for the better. Also, there's. There's a drug out there, Narcan, that. That can save people's lives. Have you ever administered Narcan to anybody?

[Scott Cochran]

I have, not personally, but I had it administered to me. So I'm a survivor of. Because of Narcan. And so, man, it's a, it's a, it's a beautiful thing that they've created. And part of my non profit is to actually get Narcan across the country in every high school and every college so that kids can go just wherever there's a fire extinguisher, wherever there's an aed. A defibrillator. Have a box of Narcan because you have four minutes. After four minutes, you're dealing with being brain dead. After six minutes, you're no longer here. So Narcan is a huge. And I've never administered it personally, but I've seen it done multiple times and brought people back to life, which has been very crazy for me to see because knowing I was sitting in that chair, you know, 20. 20.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah.

[Mark Ingram]

Coach, man, how's. How's. How's your young bull doing, man? I'd be seeing him in the way. I'll be seeing him getting there. He's playing.

[Rob Stone]

Let's go.

[Scott Cochran]

He's got his senior year coming up and then he's playing for his dad.

[Mark Ingram]

Let's go.

[Rob Stone]

So let's go.

[Scott Cochran]

Tell me God isn't great. I mean, come on.

[Mark Ingram]

All the time.

[Scott Cochran]

I mean, come on, baby.

[Mark Ingram]

Come on, man. That's a blessing there, man. But, Coach, man, we've. It's an honor. It's a privilege to have you on the show, man. I love you to death, man.

[Urban Meyer]

I.

[Mark Ingram]

You are up here. When it talks about people who have an impact on my life, coaching and how they impact players, and you are the epitome of that for me. So I just want to say I love you to death. And we do something special on the show, man. We've been prepping you. We've been hitting you with questions for 20 minutes. Minutes. We give you a chance, man, to ask any one of us a question, man. That, that. Anything, any one of us, Any question you got, you can go ahead and ask us, bro. You got a national championship, coach, you got the best host in all the college sports, bowling, everything.

[Rob Stone]

And you better not ask it to me. That's all I'm saying. You better not ask it to me.

[Scott Cochran]

Coach, I am. I am. You know, all I want to do is talk a little trash to Coach Meer because.

[Rob Stone]

Oh, let's go.

[Mark Ingram]

What's your record against Coach Meer? Do you know it? I'm two on one Versal.

[Urban Meyer]

No, you're not.

[Mark Ingram]

He claims that. He claims the 2010 season. He wasn't the coach there. Coach Cock. He claims he wasn't there in the 2010 season. So I don't.

[Urban Meyer]

I was there, but I wasn't there.

[Scott Cochran]

Okay, but 2010. Did we play Florida in 2010?

[Mark Ingram]

Oh, yes, we had him at home and we spanked that ass.

[Scott Cochran]

Oh, I forgot about that one.

[Urban Meyer]

We. We played. We played each other in two championship games. No. 1, 2, 3. Three championship games. I'm not sure the record, but I'm not sure the record, but I think we're two and one against you guys.

[Scott Cochran]

Yeah, I think we're. I think I'm 2 and 2 because of. I didn't think of 2010. That's interesting.

[Urban Meyer]

2 and 2.

[Scott Cochran]

Yeah. Is that right? Because. Because 08 lost. 09, 1 10. 114 lost. Is there another one?

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, 2 and 2. You're right. But one of the 110 count. That was just a regular.

[Mark Ingram]

It does count. You were the coach on the sideline for that team.

[Urban Meyer]

Championship games, two and one. You're Scott, I love you to death and much respect. You're one and two against me in championship games, pal.

[Mark Ingram]

You just can't.

[Urban Meyer]

And you got it. And you got. And you gots to deal with that today, the rest of your day, both you guys.

[Scott Cochran]

That's okay.

[Mark Ingram]

You have to deal with the realization that you were the coach of Florida Gators in 2010. Let's go.

[Scott Cochran]

Okay. I got one thing, though. I have one thing I honestly want to talk about, because I think that y'all could really would love this and would jump on board. Okay. My non profit. One of the biggest things that we are trying to do is when you think of October, when you think of the color pink, it reminds you of Susan G. Komen and what she did for breast cancer. Now, October, everybody's pink. Well, September is recovery month and our color is purple. So I've got Nike, I'm working with Under Armour, I'm trying to get Adidas on board to develop purple gear so that in the month of September, high schools, colleges, you know, Brit Reed, Andy Reid's son, is on my board of directors. He's going to help me with the NFL. But we are trying to make September purple across the country so that we can eliminate this stigma. Because, look, 200 people, 200Americans are dying a day due to fentanyl poisoning and overdoses. And we're not even talking about alcohol. We're just talking about the fentanyl overdoses. That's what happened to me was fentanyl poisoning. And so any. Like, if you go to eliminatethewhisperer.org you can order purple stuff. We'll have that on the website probably by the middle of April. So a month from now, you can order it for your team, you can order for your volleyball team, your cheerleaders, your football players. We're going to have purple mouthpieces, purple socks, the purple ribbon. So that's. That's something that I really wanted to you know, tell y'all about. Because I think it's something everybody can get around, you know, anything you got.

[Mark Ingram]

Coach, send it to me. And you know, I'm, I'm. I got your back a thousand percent. You tell me where I could order it. Eliminatethewhispere.org yes, sir. Eliminatethewhisper.org I'm going on there. I'm ordering my stuff. September, September when I'm on big noon. I'm rocking that purple suit. I'm gonna make sure I got me one. Ready?

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what the hell's going on. Coach. We've lost him with the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, yeah. You got two new fans in. In yourself. Coach Cochran, congratulations and. And best of luck in your continuing battle. I know it never ends. We're cheering for you. We're cheering for your football program. Let's go west Alabama.

[Mark Ingram]

Let's go west.

[Urban Meyer]

God bless you, brother. Thank.

[Rob Stone]

Thanks for joining us on the triple options, Coach Cochran. Let's go west Alabama.

[Urban Meyer]

Let's go.

[Scott Cochran]

Yeah, baby. Go Tigers.

[Mark Ingram]

Go Tigers.

[Rob Stone]

Welcome back to the triple option presented by Wendy's, Rob Stone, Mark Ingram, the coach Urban Meyer back here with you. Mark, do you remember what you asked for last week? You asked for a prop and you were upset that we were missing something. Do you remember what it was?

[Mark Ingram]

March Madness.

[Rob Stone]

No, what was it? It was the triple option crystal ball. We are breaking. Yeah, we broke our budget. We broke our budget with the triple option crystal ball. It's so big. It's the biggest crystal ball you've ever seen.

[Mark Ingram]

You guys got that from five below. Hey, man, come on.

[Rob Stone]

Oh, my God. All right, so the triple option crystal ball is brought to you by BetMGM. Pick your path attorney glory. In our free to play game for each round of March matchups, you have the opportunity to make predictions about what will happen, including outcomes like game winners and over under. You'll earn points based on a scoring system and you could win a share of $250,000 in bonus bets based on your points earned. Again, the crystal ball is out here. The NCAA tournament is here. March Madness. We love the chaos that this month brings in college basketball. Guys, I want your final four teams right now and to start it off because I think there's going to be a trend here. I want to remind you that the SEC is that conference still conference record 14 of their 16 teams to the tournament. Only two teams from the SEC did not make the NCAA tournament. And not only not only did 14 SEC teams make it. They made it with like single digit seatings around them, like loaded programs. So my guess is we're going to hear a lot of SEC programs. And they hate to hear that. Programs that. Mark, they hate to hear that.

[Mark Ingram]

Stone.

[Rob Stone]

I know.

[Mark Ingram]

It's a football sec now you go on basketball.

[Rob Stone]

They own everything. They own.

[Mark Ingram]

They hate it. They hate it, Stone. They hate it.

[Rob Stone]

Right. All right, Mark, since you're. You're. You're our official SEC resident expert, give us your final four, please. And how many choose?

[Mark Ingram]

Auburn out the South? Hell no.

[Rob Stone]

Hell no.

[Mark Ingram]

Michigan State Sparty all day.

[Rob Stone]

Air day. All right. Pops is nodding.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, Pops love it. Moms love it. Grandpa love it. Rest in peace, grandpa. I love you with all my heart. And Tom Izzo holding it down. We going Sparty out the South. Cause we damn sure ain't going auburn. And that's 1,000. And then you go to the east region, you know, Cooper flag and the Duke fighting Blue Devils, they've been balling. But guess who they gonna have to meet? The Alabama Crimson Tide, Mark Sears. Mark to Mark, you feel me? Marshall baller Mark Sears. So we going Bama out the south. I mean out to east. My fault. We going Michigan State out to south, Bama out the east, and then we go down to the west region. Florida been balling, bro. Florida been playing at a high level, dog. Florida been playing at a high level. So I'm going to go Florida. I like them out of the west, then the Midwest. Houston, number one seed, Tennessee to two seed, Kentucky to three. Lord Jesus.

[Rob Stone]

It's a lord.

[Mark Ingram]

Lord Jesus. It's a fire. But we don't like no volunteer. We don't like no orange. We don't like no volunteer. So I'm going Houston. That's my final four.

[Rob Stone]

All right, so two from the sec.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, yo, because I'm not going Tennessee is. Is like that for real. But I don't like them, so I'm. I can't let. I can't. I can't give them birth, all right? I can't give them a birth because I don't like them.

[Rob Stone]

There's your marketing room. Final four coach. Your final four teams.

[Urban Meyer]

There was a time where Tennessee didn't like me and I didn't like them, but I'm okay with them now. We're good. So. All right, here we go. South, I got Michigan.

[Rob Stone]

Coachiano still doesn't like him.

[Urban Meyer]

Oh, oh, too soon.

[Mark Ingram]

You get Tennessee love.

[Urban Meyer]

So south, I got Michigan State. So me and Mark are Pretty close. Bama East. Bama's playing. Look at coach at a high level.

[Mark Ingram]

Going for the.

[Urban Meyer]

I got Florida. I think Florida is a national champion. When I was at Florida, Billy Donovan was my neighbor. Joe Kim Noer. Joe. Joe Quinn. Joe.

[Mark Ingram]

Joe Kim, Noah.

[Urban Meyer]

Joe Kim, Noah Brewer, Horford, Richard.

[Rob Stone]

I mean unbelievable back to back titles, man. Those, that team was. Those teams were loaded.

[Urban Meyer]

So I, I have, I'll go right now. Florida's gonna win it all. And then my fourth pick is Tennessee. So I have three SEC schools in there.

[Mark Ingram]

It's legit.

[Urban Meyer]

I think it's Final Four. Final Four is great, but I think the Gators are going to pick up their third national championship in school history.

[Rob Stone]

I've got three from the SEC going as well. You know who's moving on from the South? Mark Ingram. The Barners are the bars.

[Mark Ingram]

Have lost three of their last four games. It's going to continue. They're going to get knocked out early. Damn the Barners, all right. They're going to get knocked out early and we love it because we don't love no Barner.

[Rob Stone]

One of us on the triple option has covered college basketball season long. It's the guy who holds the crystal ball in all season long. The tiniest crystal ball ever. All season long. Auburn and Duke really have been like battling for one versus two. And I get it that Auburn's hit a little slump right now. But throughout the course of the season those two programs have distinguished themselves above the rest. So I've got Auburn moving on from the South, I've got Duke moving on from the east in the Midwest, like you guys, I love Florida, so they're all number one seeds and I kind of hate myself for only taking number one seeds, but that's the way this season feels right now to a lot of people in the Midwest. I'm going to go with two seed Tennessee. So yeah, I got three from the sec. So like really top heavy teams. A real quick shout out to some picks that are outside of the top three seats. Here's three programs that I like outside of the, you know, the top 12, if you will. I like six seed BYU to make some noise. They're dangerous matchup. Five seed Clemson, who has beaten Duke. Watch out for the Tigers and Maryland, man. What Kevin Willard's been able to put together the last back half of the season winning games on the road, which is a big problem. Maryland as a four seed. I think those guys can cause some problems. You take a look at the numbers from bet, MGM and Duke in Florida are your favorites. Auburn and Houston right behind them. Bama, Tennessee, your Spartans, St. John sitting there as a two seed. Coach Patino might be able to make some some news. It'd be good for the Big east as well. So March Madness is here. There's your final four picks. Can't wait for you guys.

[Mark Ingram]

I don't care what you say.

[Rob Stone]

I'm sorry about the bar at the.

[Mark Ingram]

Buzzer with the left hand.

[Rob Stone]

That's fine. You can go tell Janai Broom he's not going to win the national title. You go ahead and tell that to Janai Broom. All right. Follow subscribe right now Us Call them.

[Mark Ingram]

Get them on the show. Tell them right on the show.

[Rob Stone]

Spotify, wherever you get your podcast as well as across social media. 3x option show. Thanks as always to our wonderful, wonderful sponsor, Zip Recruiter, bet, MGM and Wendy's. And as always, thanks for watching the triple option. I can't wait. What we Cooper Flag is Crystal Ball for next week.

[Mark Ingram]

Cooper Flag is him. Crystal Ball him.

[Rob Stone]

Sa.